Hors d'oeuvres - the latest, most interesting news

This part of our website has been prepared to extend our Railvolution news service. Its objective is to offer you snippets of the latest, most interesting news, accompanied by photos. On one hand this will let you to have a sneak preview of what the forthcoming number of Railvolution will contain. On the other, it will enable our editorial staff to provide you with information that is at their fingertips – and why waste exciting pieces of news while waiting until we have the printed version of the magazine ready for distribution? What is more, on the website pages we are in a position to publish photos for which there will be insufficient space in the printed magazine!

Please bear in mind that it is not our intention to 'digitalise' Railvolution! The printed magazine will still continue, with its full range of articles and news items. But we hope that you enjoy this new offering, and that it will stimulate your interest in our unique publication.

Stadler DMUs For FGC Delivered

In February 2014 Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya awarded a 9.4 million EUR contract to Stadler for two Class 331 GTW DMUs for the 80 km 1,668 mm gauge Lleida to La Pobla de Segur line, on which it has provided services since 2006. Both trains were built at Bussnang, and in early January 2016 were despatched to Catalunya on low-loaders. The first photo shows one of the end cars on the motorway south of the French border, between Perpignan and Figueres. The other shows a DMU following railing on 17 January at the Associació de Restauració de Material Ferroviari (ARMF) works at Pla de Vilanoveta, near Lleida. This will be the temporary home of the new trains, which are expected to enter service in spring 2016, until FGC completes a new depot at Balaguer.

First GTW+ Module

Stadler has recently started testing the first GTW+ power module destined for the batch of DMUs being built by Metrovagonmash for RZD. It is shown here on 15 May 2013 at Stadler’s IBS commissioning center in Erlen, where for testing purposes around 100 m of 1,520 mm track was laid within the complex, and a temporary shelter was built so that the module could be protected from the elements while being tested.